


Poetry. Thoughts?

by Unfathomablespace



Category: Poetry - Fandom
Genre: Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2017-05-13
Packaged: 2018-10-31 08:54:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10895958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unfathomablespace/pseuds/Unfathomablespace
Summary: Don't read this. It is pure waffle, written to "win" what isn't even an argument.





	Poetry. Thoughts?

**Author's Note:**

> A picture is worth a thousand words? Try 1001.

Poetry, though beloved by many is one of the world's most easily mockable subjects. For example, I believe that in the future, having one’s teenage poetry read to a crowd of people will be a genuine and lawful punishment; similar to one’s late night internet search history printed in the local newspaper. 

 

It is seen will a degree of contempt, largely I think because of its necessary connections to the teenage poet. When mentioned in a public forum many people (usually men) will shoot down a certain kind of not-prose. That is, the writing of any given teenage girl. It is truly reviled with a fervour i've never understood. If you don't like it, don't read it, Gerald, just because no one liked your novel. 

 

The hatred of the subset of the genre is so widespread that is it (1) your mom and (2) a reliable cliché for any rom-com or laughably unwatchable teen movie to draw on. 

 

The author is usually either a slim slip of a thing with long blond hair and  permanently tear tracked cheeks. The other is stereotypically a larger lady, sporting a healthy amount of dark black eyeliner (often purchased or shoplifted from her local mega supermarket). There is truth in these charictures, sure but is there humour? Yes. Should it be nasty? No.

 

Either girl is writing to work through an issue in her privileged life that has suddenly been ravaged by depression or bullying. She is not internalising her problems or acting out but instead pursuing a creative outlet and in general, harming no one. However this healthy yet quiet display of emotion and steady means of expressing it is to be laughed at of course. It is an affront to patriarchal “be a man” values which do not allow this sort of medically approved self care or therapy. And, at least in this analogy it is also an affront to the jock who is probably the one bullying our mascara-ed friend from above.

 

Of course as well, it is _cool_ to hate poetry. Even the poets are doing it. Ever poet I've ever spoken to has hastened to distinguish themselves from those _other_ dreary dreadful writers moaning and moping about something or other. Books are written on the subject as to why people hate poetry so much. I wish I could condemn them but I refuse to fall in hypocrisy. At least good old (and dead) Percy Shelley wrote “In Defence of Poetry”. Ahead of the curve, that lad.

 

There is also the issue of its teaching in schools. The delivery is dry, stale and flat comparable to the canteen food in said schools. The teachers never enjoyed proper emotive recitation and then in turn force their charges to endure the same fate. Education has long since perfected the art taking something enjoyable and chewing and digesting it until it is so stressful that scars the average person.Here, humanity is Sisyphus and the rock is the education system, or perhaps just dodgy class plans. Each generation begrudgingly reach the top of the hill but very few care enough to peruse the view. Even if they do, they'll often be pulled back by the chain of the rest of the flock. 

 

This makes poetry inaccessible and like everything else, affected by class. Schools with less funding will be less likely to focus extra time on the classics or romantics or the beat-nicks or who knows what else. No one wants to feel silly or stupid in their own leisure time and reading a book and not understanding does just that. And it is unfortunate.

 

On the flipside, when a poet from a lower socio-economic class rises into the popular poetry scene, they are swarmed upon and lorded about. They are showed off, look, they say, at this  _ good, clever _ poor person who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and probably wrote with the aglet or the laces.

 

You have to put effort in. Which not everyone wants  to. Which I respect. And actually expect in some ways, in this world of spray can cheddar cheese. 

 

Poetry has also left the vernacular in favour of slang and swearing. And don't get me wrong, I don't disapprove of either but it is nice to have the odd quaint turn of phrase to turn or stanza to quote when words fail. We have lost the way of P.G Wodehouse’s Reginald Jeeves and that is not to be endured. Any fool will sound infinitely more clever even if they manage to misquote. And then that misquote gets turned into a turn of phrase. I'm looking at you “All that glitters is not gold.” which should be “All that glisters is not gold.” I realise that that's Shakespeare and he is a poet  _ and  _ a playwright but if you've got this far, you realise that I'm pedantic.

 

Poets have a bad wrap of being brave sensitive heroes digging into their hearts, nay, their very souls. Young fops with floppy hair faffing about in fancy bohemian cafes. They are people, just like you and I, loath as you may be to believe it. And deserve no further reproach or disgust than any other gormless eejit walking around. 

 

It is no more or less than any other art form. It is more delicate than novels and one hopes, shorter. Poetry is not as colourful as any tangible picture one could paint but it has its own unique quality that lets the reader see what they need to see. A poem about a lover is a poem about your lover.

 

But it is necessary. It speaks things that can't be expressed in other ways. Allowing people to understand the thoughts and ideas of people that would ordinarily ignore or object to listening to. Great poets rise from any minority and let them say what needs be said. And have it be heard. 

 

In short, poetry is important. Even if we don't want it somethings. Vegetables. I'm saying poetry is vegetables. 


End file.
